FährevsFalkeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Fähre” and “Falke” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,659
“Fähre” frequency rank
#19,569
“Falke” frequency rank
30228
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fähre Falke
Definition spezielles Schiff, das der (gewerbsmäßigen) Beförderung von Personen und/oder Transportmitteln von Ufer zu Ufer dient mittelgroßer, zum Teil auch kleiner Raubvogel aus der Familie der Falkenartigen

Where the eye mixes Fähre and Falke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Fähre and Falke follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Fähre
5 ch
Falke

Visual trap between Fähre and Falke

A purely visual mix-up. Fähre ([ˈfɛːʁə]) and Falke ([ˈfalkə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30228, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fähre is recorded at frequency rank #10,659, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɛːʁə]. Falke is at rank #19,569, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfalkə].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 30228, this pair ranks #1,751,945 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Fähre vs Falke

Shared letters: ef. Private to "Fähre": hrä. Private to "Falke": akl.

"Fähre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Falke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Falke ← aflke · fakle · falek · falkke · fallke · ffalke · flake

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Fähre" and "Falke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfɛːʁə] versus [ˈfalkə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Fähre" or "Falke"?
"Fähre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,659 in our German list, against #19,569 for "Falke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fähre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Falke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,751,945 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fähre" and "Falke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Falke vs Felge". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,751,945 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list